[Operative methods and our results in the surgery of inguinal hernias in children].
Inguinal hernias in children are encountered very frequently in the surgical wards. The aim of surgical treatment of such hernias is to close and resect the nonobliterated - opened vaginal process. The distal portion of the vaginal process may left unaltered however, the position of the funiculus must not be changed. The operative procedure used by the authors has yielded excellent results with complications in less than 1% of the cases. A much larger percentage of complications (over 6%) occurs in those cases in which surgical procedures intended for adults are used for children. Testicular atrophy has been seen in 13% of such cases. Keeping in mind the difference in percentage in complications between the two above mentioned surgical approaches, it is obvious that only those procedures that yield the least complications should be used in pediatric hernioplasty. 430 inguinal hernia repairs were performed on children in our clinic and only one recidivism occurred in one child and in another, the testes did not descend completely into the scrotum. No other complications had occurred.